


De Nomina

by Sophonisba



Series: Zophonisbeion [11]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alien Culture, Anthropology, Folklore, Gen, Vignette, diverging au, spackle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-09
Updated: 2011-03-09
Packaged: 2017-10-16 19:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/168711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophonisba/pseuds/Sophonisba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unpacking cultural references can be more interesting than mistaking them in the first place. (Follow-up to "Daniel.")</p>
            </blockquote>





	De Nomina

"I am sorry," Teyla apologized again. "I did not realize that he was speaking of a different 'Daniel.'"

Doctor Jackson shrugged, smiling. "I was named for Daniel the prophet," he told her, "and also a little perhaps for Daniel Webster, who was also named for Daniel the prophet; it's really rather flattering when you think about it."

"As if Lieutenant Ford were to ask whether all my draft-birds had perished with Athos, taking me for Teyla of the Red Hand?"

"Were you named for Teyla of the Red Hand, then? Who was she?"

"It happened in such and such a manner, that in the days when the draft-birds still ran through the fields of Athos and were harnessed to wagons and war-carts, and some yet dwelt in the cities, refusing to leave, and Athoio was commonly spoken by all the people and the first tongue the children learned, that the peril-commander of the camp of the Striking Gyre was Teyla of the Red Hand. Teyla and her sister had three husbands and two wives, and somebody was always carrying off one or another of them." Teyla blushed. "Forgive me; you wanted answers, not a recitative."

"No, no, I'm a studier-of-men," Doctor Jackson told her. "Answers are good, but a recitative is always better, as long as there's time for it. Although, before you properly begin: the Athosians used to speak a different language? Have you any record of what it was like?"

"We saved a grammar and some texts, when we came to this world," Teyla told him, bemused. "The high chants are still in Athoio, so we must learn it."

The lust that overtook Doctor Jackson's face was, if less blatant than that which seized Doctor McKay at the hint of Ancestral devices, no less clear. He rose slightly and then checked himself with an effort.

"And this tale you have offered to tell; is it one that may be recorded, or one that must be passed from mouth to ear only?"

"It -- we must scrive all our books, rather than stamp them out as you do, and so we have not, but I see no reason why you should not make a record of a recitative if you please."

Doctor Jackson reached for his _lab-top_ computing machine and for a device that had a soft fuzzy end and a long string. He fitted the string's end into the lab-top and hastily tapped at the input rectangles of the keyed board.

"Please," he invited, smiling. "When you are ready."

Teyla took a deep breath.

"It happened in such and such a manner, that in the days when the draft-birds still ran through the fields of Athos and were harnessed to wagons and war-carts, and some yet dwelt in the cities, refusing to leave, and Athoio was commonly spoken by all the people and the first tongue the children learned, that the peril-commander of the camp of the Striking Gyre was Teyla of the Red Hand. Teyla and her sister had three husbands and two wives, and somebody was always carrying off one or another of them; the draft-birds' harnesses were never unbuckled from her war-cart, within which a second set of bantoi and paltoi were kept, and Teyla slept with her enkeia by her side."

" _Enkeia_? No, don't mind me..."

"It is from the Athoio word for 'spear,'" Teyla paused to explain. "You put a paltos in it and hurl thus," she mimed, "and it is as if a tall man threw a spear rather than I threw a paltos."

"A spear-thrower," Doctor Jackson nodded. "Several cultures on Earth have used such."

 _Spear-thrower_. What a perfectly apt word for an enkeia: which throws as if a spear.


End file.
